UFL to the NFL

Couple of football related shoots this week, which are a bit of a first for me, atleast action-wise. Started with a press conference introducing the uniforms and team name of the NY franchise in the upstart United Football League (UFL). On hand were league commissioner Michael Hyungue, NY owner Bill Mayer, and Head Coach Ted Cottrell. For those who are interested, the team name is the NY Sentinels, which I personally like, and the uniforms like the other 3 teams in the league are based on the league colors of black, teal, green and white.



Here's a quick image of the home and away uniforms, which interestingly will only be worn in the inaugural season of the league. Next year the league will add two teams, and they will get uniforms branded with team logos. The league seems to have the right approach, they are not taking the NFL head-on, and seem to be working with them. The NY team will play one of their home games in Giants Stadium, which I'm guessing would have to be approved by the NFL, but who knows. They will also play a game in Hartford, and then in the new Citi Field, which could make for a nice scene. Here's hoping it works for them, everyone involved seems very personable and on the same page. I'm also hoping Coach Cottrell fares well, I've met him twice now at the pressers, and he just seems like a genuine all-around good guy. I'll be rooting for them all to succeed.

Here are a few other images from the presser including all the team jerseys (in no particular order):






From there it was onto my first NFL assignment. I was asked to cover the pre-season tilt between the St. Louis Rams and the NY Jets at Giants Stadium. The big news locally that I needed to cover was the first NFL start for "franchise" QB Mark Sanchez, so that was the area of concentration. My parking pass arrived via FedEx on Friday morning, and I headed out to the stadium late afternoon for the 7pm start.

Man it was hot...90 degree weather is not football weather, thankfully by kickoff, it had cooled considerably. Anyway, picked up my credential, headed through security, and down to the field level. Picked up my lovely red vest and headed out to the field to scout out were I could shoot. Asked a few questions about where and where not you could shoot, and headed to set up in the photo room.

Once done, picked up the gear, and headed back to the field to shoot the heralded Mark Sanchez warming up for his 1st NFL action.






Quick transmit, and back to the field to shoot my first game action. Took a bit getting used to moving around following the play, but quickly got the feel for it, and think I did decent given it was a first time out. Here's a bit of action, again concentrating on the Jets QB's since that was the story.






but of course the real story was the debut of Mark Sanchez' and he began to warm up on the sidelines...



Sanchez entered to a roar from those in attendance, but only played one series, he did however, go 3-4 for 88 yards and led the Jets to a touchdown, so at least there was some positive to shoot and a glimpse into the future of what could be a promising career.





Thomas Jones goes airborne to finish off Mark Sanchez' first professional touchdown drive...





Mark Sanchez waves to his parents after leading his first professional touchdown drive...



Interesting shoot and a bit different from the main sports I shoot (Boxing, UFC, NHL) in the fact you are assigned a position in those and hope the action works out for you, as opposed to football where you have the freedom to move about a bit and hope you choose the right place to capture what you are looking for...Guess it was an ok first effort, but I didn't really shoot it as much as covering a game as I did covering Sanchez...



but I'll get a few more opportunities as it looks like I'll be covering the Jets this season, we'll see whether it's Sanchez or Clemens getting the nod in the opener.